Pekin Weekend and More!

 Summer is making me a bad blogger AND an unhealthy eater.  Although, I think it's the liquor that's got me packing on the (5! Since May!) pounds.  So from now on, I am going to stop lying to My Fitness Pal (for real this time-- I ate an animal cracker that Dorothy fed me in bed this morning, and I counted those 11 calories, damnit.  No more handfuls of M&Ms from the Costco-sized bag, either).  Also, if I don;t have enough calories left to eat AND drink, I am just going to have a cocktail.  Responsible, no?

Speaking of eating, we did a quick picnic during Jack's baseball practice.  Note:  PB&J is not a good to-go food for my messiest little eater.

 Cooper seriously loves swings.  His pleas of "High mommy.  As high as the birds.  HIGHER!" huant my nightmares.

 As long as they were covered in peanut butter, we had ice cream, too.  I mean, why not.

 Of course, we have had many, many pool days.  Yesterday, in fact, Jack was super excited to be the first kid down the water slide after adult swim, and the lifeguard kept telling him to walk to the slide, but he just couldn't-- his sweet little seven-year-old anticipation made it too hard to walk, KWIM?

 We've had a little TV time, too, OF COURSE.

 Some hockey practice in pajamas.

 Ben and I went out for Mexican food and saw Ted 2 on Friday-- that movie is HILARIOUS.

 Also, I am SO ANNOYING wen I order a salad because I ask for everything on the side.  Makes you want to dine with me, huh? (I needed my calories for 2 Mezcal mules).

 We loaded up the van and went to my parents' house on Saturday.

 Dorothy was stoked because there was a park.

 All 3 boys on swings.  I have no clue who the lady in the white tank and black pants is, but she is in all of our park pics-- ha!

 Jack, apparently trying to break another wrist.

 She's really into this hug, obvs.

 MOAR ice cream.

 This was our pre-pizza snack, LOL.

 My parents had the trees cleared off a portion of their side yard, and it is suddenly awesome for flying kites.

 Dorothy helped herself to a quick (almost) half dozen donuts.

 We discovered a Portillo's in Rockford on our way home at exactly lunch time.  We were delighted!  But the place was a ZOO, so we had to get our food to go and eat on the steps of a neighboring bank, classy style.

 Look how big she is!!  If she didn;t nurse 3 times a day, I would be worried she's not a baby anymore.

 Beatrix was super happy to see her kids and vice versa when we picked her up from the boarder.

 Queen Elsa joined us at Costco.

 Cooper made some banana swirl after watching his favorite Daniel Tiger rerun.

 Ah, swim lessons.  Dorothy is only happy and content for about 45 seconds out of the whole half hour.  After that, it's a shit show.

But still even with swim lesson hijinks, extra five pounds, boys having fistfights all over my house, SUMMER IS MY FAVORITE.

Such a debauched summer

First of all, you need to go to Costco and buy this cucumber watermelon lemonade, pour it in a tall glass with ice-- fill the glass like 2/3 full and then fill it the rest of the way with your favorite vodka you've been storing in the freezer.  Grab a straw; throw in a lime.  SUMMER in a glass.

Oh my gosh you guys, we had the most ridiculous weekend.  We played in a surprisingly competitive and truly hilarious badminton tournament. We snapped these pictures of each other warming up with others, but we played as a team (DUH).

 Ben is a GREAT badminton player, which is how we battled our way to second place. I kind of suck because I have depth perception issues, but that's OK because Ben was EVERYWHERE all at once.  He was fab.  I was laughing SO HARD the whole time because people were getting so pissed when we beat them (in back-to-back games-- we only lost to the team who won) because I SUCKED.  The husbands all wised up pretty fast and started spiking the birdie at me, but Ben has giraffe arms, and he was ALWAYS RIGHT THERE.  Ridiculously fun.

We started drinking at 10:00 am and finished the championship match right at 7:45 pm.  We left the party (which kept going until midnight, but we could not hang) and took a taxi (the party was not in our neighborhood-- it's not that we're lazy) to the golf course restaurant where we ate huge plates of food-- first time in 5 years I have ordered fries instead of a steamed veggie-- stumbled home, and were asleep by 9:30.

 We got our car on Father's Day on our way to Family Float Day at the pool which would have been way more fun if we had 4 floats.  But we only had 3 floats and a beach ball.  So much fighting.

 Ben ditched us to go golfing with friends, and I went home to nap the babies and work on my crock pot ribs for a Fathers Day barbecue which descended into debauchery when all the grown ups played slosh ball and after getting on second base a couple times (where you have to chug a beer), I got mad drunk and flounced off the field to pout after everyone said I was out when I thought I was safe.  I'm the funnest.

 Dorothy, playing in her room:

 Harry and I went back to the same greasy spoon diner I blogged about last time because we love it so much.

 I accidentally packed him Cooper's trunks for swim lessons yesterday, but he was nice about it.

 Hijinks at the pool yesterday afternoon.

There is a lot I don't like about teaching online, but most of it is mitigated by days like today where it is 10:00, and I am still in bed.  WORKING from bed, really.

I pink puffy heart summer

Another total paradise of a week over here.  (I am serious, actually).

The big boys had a football camp at my school on Wednesday, so I took advantage of the location and took everyone (by myself) to my favorite greasy spoon in the universe.  Such wonderful pancakes, and the french toast is to die for.  But really, the very best thing on the menu are the chocolate milkshakes.  So we drank them for breakfast.

 It was an early breakfast, obvs.

 Cooper really wanted to stay.

 Dorothy and Cooper were all about the tackle dummies.

 There were like 400 kids there from kindergarten to eighth grade, and I felt weird just leaving my comparatively small kids, so we lingered.

 Dorothy was a lady, clearly.

 The boys got the coach to sign their shirts.

 And then their lacrosse friends told me that all the other parents were gone (not totally true) and I should leave (probably true).  S I did, and it was so easy to just hang with the babies al day while Ben was at work and the boys were at camp.  I took a nap.  It reminded me of the days I had every damn day during the school year.

 A friend and I took our boys (just my big 2) to a new trampoline park with a rock wall-- so fun!

 Ben and I went out with some foodie friends to a new restaurant and then ended the night at the bar by our house where I spilled an entire vodka drink on my lap checking on this selfie

 Today the whole fam damily saw Inside Out, which was AWESOME

 Dorothy really liked the dream loungers and the popcorn.

 And Dorothy got more Elsa shoes at Target today.  She may never take them off again.